Operation of an oven appliance necessarily generates heat. One or more gas and/or electric heating elements located in a cooking chamber of the oven appliance provide heat not only for cooking but also for cleaning operations. Certain oven appliances have a cleaning cycle where temperatures in the oven appliance exceed 800° F. While oven appliances come in a variety of configurations, including stand-alone or free-standing arrangements, oven appliances are generally designed for placement within cabinetry or some other enclosure within a kitchen space. Frequently, such cabinetry or other enclosure is constructed from wood or a wood-based product. Proper cooling of the oven appliance can assist with reducing or limiting exterior temperatures of the oven appliance near the cabinetry or other enclosure.
Oven appliances are frequently provided with one or more cavities or ventilation ducts positioned outside of the cooking chamber and typically within the cabinet of the appliance. The ducts are used to direct a flow of air through the oven appliance so as to cool the oven appliance, particularly during high temperature operations, such as self-cleaning. Such ducts may be provided in a variety of configurations on one or more sides of the appliance including the top and bottom.
Certain oven appliances rely upon convection to provide movement of air through the ducts. The size of such air ducts can be increased where higher temperatures are expected. However, the space provided for the air ducts typically comes at the expense of space within the cooking chamber. For example, the overall size of oven appliances is generally standardized due to cabinetry sizes and other restrictions. Increasing the cross-section or volume of the ducts necessarily decreases the size of the cooking chamber. As a result, certain oven appliances are provided with a fan or blower to provide a forced air flow through the ducts or ventilation system of the appliance. Such forced air flow improves the cooling ability of the oven appliance and can allow for a reduction in the size of the ducts, vents, and the like that would otherwise be necessary if only natural convection were relied upon for cooling.
Accordingly, an oven appliance having a fan that provides for cooling during cooking or cleaning operations would be useful. In addition, an appliance that also includes features for determining whether a fan of the appliance is properly functioning would also be beneficial.